3/1 To Win
Derby County’s team news has been confirmed ahead of today’s pre-season friendly match against 2. Bundesliga side Kaiserslautern (kick-off: 3pm BST).
The Rams will line-up as follows at the stunning Fritz-Walter Stadion this afternoon:
Derby County: Carson, Wisdom, Keogh, Pearce, Forsyth; Huddlestone, Butterfield, Johnson; Russell, Weimann, Martin
Substitutes: Mitchell, Baird, Olsson, Bryson, Hanson, Anya, Bennett, Nugent
Gary Rowett is lining his side up in a 4-3-3 formation and told RamsTV ahead of the game that he now has one eye on getting his side fully prepared for their Sky Bet Championship curtain-raiser at Sunderland in a fortnight’s time.
The 43-year-old also reiterated that nothing will be defined by today’s fixture.
He said: “I wouldn’t say today’s team is completely geared towards Sunderland in a fortnight but we want to look at one or two things.
“That is in terms of both the formation and also personnel too just to see how that looks together.
“Of course, and I have told the players this, nothing is definitive at this stage.
“We have the Northampton and Hoffenheim games, and the Under-23s also have a game against Barnsley a few days before the season starts.
“We have plenty of games to iron out the exact starting line-up. What we want to learn today is what the team might look like; that’s the real objective of today.
“We’re going to go 4-3-3 today. I think to have Tom at the base of midfield and two ahead of him, we want to see how that looks. We want to see how Chris looks up front on his own to start with.
“It is due to be quite warm today and because of the heat in a big stadium, it might be difficult to get all the players through 90 minutes. Therefore, we might get to 70 minutes and change quite a few players.”
Rowett, the Derby boss, has confirmed that Darren Bent will be ruled out with a hamstring injury, whilst Nick Blackman, George Thorne, Matej Vydra, Jason Shackell and Max Lowe all missed out on the trip to Germany.
Defender Curtis Davies has also remained at home due to personal reasons.
Head over to RamsTV to watch all the action LIVE and FREE from the Fritz-Walter Stadion, with our Matchday Day show set to start at 2:25pm BST ahead of kick-off (3pm BST) in Germany.
